The 2013 legislative session is underway in St. Paul, and lawmakers are spending their second day away from the Capitol for an annual conference that stresses bipartisan cooperation.

The “One Minnesota” conference being held Wednesday, Jan. 9, at the University of Minnesota’s Humphrey School of Government is an annual tradition dating to 2007.

It’s open to all state lawmakers but closed to the public.

This year’s conference includes a discussion with former Vice President Walter Mondale and former Minnesota Congressman Gil Gutknecht.

It also includes sessions on the budget, taxes and jobs; funding of the K-12 education system; health care policy; leadership; and other topics.

With the opening-day ceremony behind them, Minnesota Democrats are planning to provide more details on how they’ll move forward in the legislative session.

A tandem news conference featuring House and Senate leaders is set for Wednesday.

The 2013 session began on Tuesday and is expected to last into May. Democrats lead both legislative chambers and have the governor’s office — a trifecta they haven’t had in more than 20 years.

The first batch of bills in the House will pair up with campaign promises, and will attempt to whittle away at state IOUs to schools, give more property taxpayers rebates, install a health care insurance exchange and prop up investment grant programs, new House Speaker Paul Thissen said.

Senate leaders have been more mum about their plans.

As you comment, please be respectful of other commenters and other viewpoints. Our goal with article comments is to provide a space for civil, informative and constructive conversations. We reserve the right to remove any comment we deem to be defamatory, rude, insulting to others, hateful, off-topic or reckless to the community. See our full terms of use here.

More in News

Michael J. Galvin, considered a “legend” in St. Paul for his decades of community service, died at age 87 on Thursday. He had suffered a stroke the week before. Galvin’s daughter, Nora, said her father loved his family and was passionate about the city of St. Paul. He was well-spoken and gave thoughtful advice, Nora Galvin said, recalling how he...

Eight years ago, it was a school on the brink of closure. This year, Carver Elementary won the Minnesota’s Future Award from the Minnesota Business Partnership — again. Carver is the only two-time winner of the award, winning it last year as well. The school will receive $50,000 and recognition at the Business Partnership’s annual dinner on Tuesday. “The three...

Mendota Heights is taking another look at how traffic from the nearby Vikings development will affect the city’s portion of Dodd Road, a two-lane, tree-lined street that runs through residential neighborhoods down to its southern border with Eagan. The city council has given city staff the OK to hire KLJ Engineering for $28,850 to conduct a comprehensive engineering study of...

Minnesota’s gray wolf population appears to have grown by 25 percent thanks to more deer, the Department of Natural Resources said Monday. The DNR’s 2016-2017 population survey estimated that Minnesota had about 500 packs and 2,856 wolves at midwinter after remaining relatively steady in the previous four surveys. The margin of error is plus or minus 500 wolves. The 2015-2016...

The former leader of an Inver Grove Heights charter school claims religious discrimination and violations of Minnesota’s whistleblower protections led to his ouster in June. Dan Hurley filed a lawsuit last week in Dakota County District Court that alleges leaders of Discovery Charter School fired him after he voiced concern the school could be violating the constitutional separation between church...

The waitress’ blank stare says it all. Outside the Midwest, people don’t understand the question “What kind of pop do you have?” It has been nearly two years since we left Minnesota, and I still cannot get it in my head that most of the country says “soda.” By now, I’ve grown used to the jokes about my accent —...